Cryptocurrencies in general and Dash in particular are not widely known, nevertheless used in Venezuela, even though people in this country would for sure benefit from this, given the exchange control, the hyperinflation of its currency (VEF), and the high number of citizens who have migrated to other countries and wish to send money or buy goods and services for their families and friends still living in Venezuela.

So, we have envisioned to hold this first of 12 monthly conferences about Dash and other cryptocurrencies for entrepreneurs in Caracas - Venezuela, that aims to increase cryptocurrency and Dash awareness and use by Venezuelans residing both in and out of the country.

Finally, these events will serve to generate content to be posted on the Internet, in the form of videos, articles and podcast, that will increase good quality information availability about Dash both in Spanish and English.
Cost:

Since 2003 there has been a tight exchange control in Venezuela, which, coupled with the hyperinflation of our currency, has resulted in a decline in our purchasing power and a weakening of our economy.

However, we are known for our entrepreneurial spirit. In November 2016, the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI) launched its Global Entrepreneurship Index for 2017, which showed that despite the economy, the individual entrepreneurial initiative has managed to stay up in our country.

This is why there has risen a series of new business models for Venezuelans, supported by the Internet, that allow us to charge in other currencies for our products and services.
Besides, since almost two million people have left our country but still have family and friends here, there is the necessity of sending money or buy goods and services from outside our borders to be consumed by people still living in Venezuela. But it is still not that easy, operatively talking, because of banking restrictions.

All this represents an opportunity for cryptocurrencies in general and Dash (specially Dash Evolution) in particular, to become widely used by Venezuelans residing both in and out of the country.

Key Deliverables

This will be the first of 12 monthly conferences about Dash and other cryptocurrencies for entrepreneurs that would be held in Caracas - Venezuela.

The participation for these entrepreneurs would be free of charge, and they may opt for prizes on Dash. But they should postulate themselves and be chosen according to the information given in their postulation, or get a personalized invitation for the event.

Besides, their level of understanding of every subject would be measured by a pre-test / post-test in Google Forms, so we can know how much they learned during the event.
Each of the 12 events would have:

Pre-test (5 minutes).

A keynote presentation on a specific subject (45 minutes).

A coffee break and networking time (20 minutes).

A workshop intended to agree on lines of action (individual and collective) for the entrepreneurs. This is the time when we can implement the giveaways (45 minutes).

Post-test (5 minutes).

Additionally, the entire event would be recorded on video, and from it, this content would be generated:

A maximum 30 minutes edited video to be posted on an exclusive YouTube channel.

Each conference addresses up to 80 Spanish Speaking entrepreneurs, who either live or come to Caracas - Venezuela for the event. The actions taken for theses entrepreneurs towards implementing or not Dash in their business or personal activities is not included in the scope, although they will be encouraged to do so.

Also, from each event we will generate content to be published on the Internet, that will be available for people all over the world searching for information about Dash and other cryptocurrencies, both in Spanish and English.
Project Milestones and Schedule

The first conference would be held in:September 2017: Digital money: What is blockchain technology and what are cryptocurrencies
(the exact date will depend on conference hall availability).
So, we should start our planning and marketing campaign in July 2017.

Here are the other 11 conferences and the month in which each would be held (to be submitted in future proposals):October 2017: What is Dash - Digital Cash and what is Dash Evolution - Fernando Gutiérrez @fernandoNovember 2017: How to submit a proposal for Dash Treasury Funds - JZA @JZADecember 2017: Wallets for Dash and other cryptocurrenciesJanuary 2018: How to earn Dash and other cryptocurrenciesFebruary 2018: How to buy and sell Dash and other cryptocurrencies in VenezuelaMarch 2018: Legal status of Dash and other cryptocurrencies buying and selling in VenezuelaApril 2018: How to accept payments in Dash and other cryptocurrenciesMay 2018: What is cryptocurrency miningJune 2018: Legal status of Dash and other cryptocurrencies mining in VenezuelaJuly 2018: How to participate on Dash MasternodesAugust 2018: How to mine Dash and other cryptocurrencies on the cloud How to avoid Crypto-Scams

Success Criteria

Entrepreneurs assist and participate in the conference (to be verified by photographs, videos and the attendance form).

There are views, likes and comments in the YouTube videos, the iVoox podcasts and the blog articles.

Major Known Risks

Low attendance at the events - Risk: Low

Volatility of Dash and VEF makes the budget not enough for covering costs - Risk: Low

As you know Dash is growing every day.
To deal with the increased number of proposal, a Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) has been created. This work is being done by volunteers (mostly Master Node Owners themselves).

We would like to know if you are planning to submit your proposal officially, i.e. Pay the 5 Dash to submit you Proposal?If so, do you want the PEC (Proposal Evaluation Committee) to assist you in preparing your Pre-Proposal?

The Dash Network actually have had a Dash Project Proposal Template for a number of years and we try to get the pre-proposal owner to read and stick to it, as it includes every useful information for a MNO (Masternode Owner) to take an informed decision before voting on whether to pass your proposal or not.

As you adjust your Pre-Proposal to our feedback, the evaluation is adjusted and this may be done a number of times (up to 5 or more).
Each time the chance of your Proposal being accepted by the MNO’s will increase.
If you want to know who will be doing the Evaluations – see here: Official PEC Pre-P https://goo.gl/qrbeXK

The evaluations also have another function:
To give the MNO’s and community a Prioritized List of Evaluated Proposals. This list will save the MNO’s and everyone else time and increase the chance of your proposal gaining votes. It will also prevent your proposal from getting lost amongst the horde or prevent it from not being read, because it’s too long or non-conforming.

Whether you accept our help or not: we will be doing Reports on all Pre-Proposals near the end of the cycle to prepare the Prioritized List of Evaluated Proposals.

If youdo want to use our services (note this is a free service)
1. Please Private Message @Biltong on the Dash Pre + Budget Proposal Discussions Forum indicating that you want the help of the PEC, so we can assign a team to you.
2. Once you have read How to submit a Dash Pre-Proposalhttps://goo.gl/7jmwXQ you might want to adjust your Pre-Proposal before we submit our 1st Evaluation, so we’ll wait for you to give us the go-ahead before we start the evaluation process.
3. Again, PM @Biltongwhen you are ready for the 1st Evaluation.
4. Please note that we do not have that much time to give you feedback via the Evaluations. The final report has to be in 3 days before end of cycle and you have to have your last adjustments in 5 days before end of cycle : i.e.: Last Adjustments: 28 June.
5. We hope to receive at least 4 updates from you (if necessary) and provide you with the same number of Evaluation/Report feedbacks, but it does mean you and us will have to start asap.
6. To adjust your Pre-Proposal for the 1st evaluation will be a time consuming (+- 3 hours of work), but believe me it will be well worth your time if you are serious about getting your Proposal passed.

Ifyou don’t want the PEC to help with your Proposal – please PM @Biltong as well, then I won’t bug you again for an answer

Full disclosure: the PEC has not officially been accepted by the MNO’s as yet, but the List of Prioritised and Evaluated Proposals will be published and will (more than likely) have an influence on a number of MNO votes.

I recommend to break this proposal to 2 months at a time, because price volatility, this amount could be either excessive or not enough. I'll rather see a 2 Month proposal for 2 events at a time.
That said there could be some unexpected costs that could affect that budget.

Also why not try to get official DASH people like Daniel Diaz (he lives in Panama) or people that the community can trust on their knowledge. We had Juan Galt who is an experience speaker on topics related to DASH, he gave a talk in Anarchapulco on 2016 and now we had him on 2017 in Cancun. I am sure he would be happy to present.

Also, if you are requesting funding from Dash, please can you provide assurances that the primary focus will be on Dash and not other Crypto Currencies? (I'm not saying ignore the other Cryptos, but it important to demonstrate some loyalty to Dash via your branding and marketing of these conferences.)

I recommend to break this proposal to 2 months at a time, because price volatility, this amount could be either excessive or not enough. I'll rather see a 2 Month proposal for 2 events at a time.
That said there could be some unexpected costs that could affect that budget.

Also why not try to get official DASH people like Daniel Diaz (he lives in Panama) or people that the community can trust on their knowledge. We had Juan Galt who is an experience speaker on topics related to DASH.

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Hello, thank you for your suggestions

I think what you suggest about breaking down the proposal into a fewer months project makes perfect sense, I think it will be the bests way to do it.

And thank you so much about proposing those Spanish speaking experts that I can invite to participate in these events.

If you can think of someone else, besides Daniel Díaz @Minotaur and Juan Galt (does anyone know if he has a username y Dash Forum?), I would be very grateful of hearing about them.

Also, if you are requesting funding from Dash, please can you provide assurances that the primary focus will be on Dash and not other Crypto Currencies? (I'm not saying ignore the other Cryptos, but it important to demonstrate some loyalty to Dash via your branding and marketing of these conferences.)

Thanks.

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Of course @Super8 this is an important issue. Thank you for pointing it out.

Although other cryptocurrencies have to be mentioned in the keynotes presentations in behalf of history and context, the events focus will be in Dash, and no other cryptocurrency will be placed on our marketing pieces to be used on the Internet or printed.

Actually, I would like to know if this community recomends any specific wallet to use in the events in order to do the practical work, and any hardware wallet that we can show in event number 3, wich is about wallets.

Couple of notes:
• There is NO pass/failure mark. The percentage simply allows us to create a Prioritized List of Evaluated Proposals. The idea being that a MNO with very little time can concentrate on Proposals at the bottom of the list only. MNO’s with more time will obviously look at all proposals as per normal.
• The evaluation also enables the Evaluators to look for scammers etc and red-flag a proposal that is a possible danger to Dash. They have more time and tools to look for the tell-tale signs.
• How did the Evaluators decide on marks: PEC Evaluator Guidelines https://goo.gl/Futw1d
• MNO’s have been very lenient in the past. S o even if you have, what you might consider a low mark, you might still pass the Vote
• Most Important: The evaluation is to give you an idea of where you can improve your proposal to have a better chance of earning MNO votes.

When you improve your proposal, please color all new material in red and don’t delete any word/sentence, but use strike through. This will make it easier for the evaluator to find changes, when she or he re-evaluates your improved proposal. The MNO’s will also so be interested to see what you changed to improve your proposal.

Since you were unlucky enough to submit your Pre-Proposal just as the PEC started, you had a handicap: You did not know the importance of the Dash Project Proposal Template https://goo.gl/m0jgfS . This Template was created some years ago by the MNO’s to get all the information that they need to make an informed decision. It is also the easiest way for you to earn extra marks. If your proposal did not cover a question in the Template – just put the Heading and answer in your detail doc. If your proposal does cover the question: Just put the Heading with the words: See original Proposal.
E.g.: Project Scope - Milestones and Schedule: See original Proposal.

We know this is a painful bureaucratic exercise, but once you’ve done your improvements for this 1st one, the next couple of improvements (maybe just one?) will be easy, and of course – you are bound to have more proposals in the future!

Sorry about the delay in getting back to you. I just sent you an email.

Building on what @JZA was saying, I think you are being too modest with this proposal. We want to support a very successful event, and we want this to be the beginning of great things for Dash in Venezuela. I suggest going for 3 months of funding, and make sure you don't under estimate what you need for success.

Dash Core TeamFoundation MemberModerator

Venezuela is a case study of why crypto is important and this proposal makes me extremely happy. This project will evolve and I'm sure that it will end up being something different to what @algodon.franelas describes now. If people in Venezuela start to understand how big Dash can be for them I'm sure all kind of side projects and extensions will be needed.

Any particular reason why you think we should replace <<cloud mining>>?

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Cloud mining is very prompt to scams. Sites claim to have minners then they shut down. Also other times, is just not profitable. The only lesson they should learn is to stay away from them all together.

Venezuela is a case study of why crypto is important and this proposal makes me extremely happy. This project will evolve and I'm sure that it will end up being something different to what @algodon.franelas describes now. If people in Venezuela start to understand how big Dash can be for them I'm sure all kind of side projects and extensions will be needed.

Cloud mining is very prompt to scams. Sites claim to have minners then they shut down. Also other times, is just not profitable. The only lesson they should learn is to stay away from them all together.

Good News: I got the support of << Caracas Impact Hub >>, not only to host the events in their conference room, but to advertise the events within its network´s database (over 35,000 entrepreneurs). In the attachments you can see their proposal.

There is a number of people who have proposed themselves to participate as speakers, I am currently evaluating them and assigning them the conferences subjects.